An installation titled "Breath," created by Assistant Professor of Art Rebecca Murtaugh, is currently featured at the Athens Institute of Contemporary Art in Athens, Georgia. It is part of an exhibition titled "Transience: The Paradox of Being" that offers the perspectives of 16 artists whose work inspires contemplation of the universal issue of transience. The show was curated by Katy Logue Thompson and Chris MacKay.
Murtaugh's site-specific installation starts with the concept of a magnified breath of air, each particle expanding into the surrounding atmosphere, emphasizing the measure of our lives through the constancy of our physical functions. The breath is manifested by small flower-like bundles of matchsticks that appear to be protruding from the wall. They expand in lovely and irregular concentric circles, conjuring up thoughts of mortality, the expiration of our souls as the burning of gasses and our biological limitations. The piece is 16 feet in diameter.
